In the ring wrestler Hulk Hogan had personality to spare. He’d rip off his yellow top with bare hands and howl about tearing off opponents' heads. From good guy at the start of his career, he turned bad years later, and convincingly so, which is a rarity among wrestlers.
  Yet none of that charisma comes through in his home life as shown on VH1’s “Hogan Knows Best” Sundays at 9:30 p.m. In fact, as reality personas go, Hogan is as dull as his wrestling persona was interesting. And fans who initially tuned in to watch a wrestling legend in the role of paterfamilias are tuning out.
   For its July 10 premiere, the show delivered 1.9 million viewers 18-49 and was the highest-rated series premiere in VH1 history. Last week, the week ended July 24, the show’s third episode was down to 1.2 million viewers, a 40 percent drop.
  Among 18-34s, “Hogan” debuted to 1.3 million and was No. 3 among cable shows for the week in that demo. Last week the show declined 37 percent, to an average of just 826,000 viewers.
   “He is not as out there as some of the other reality types” on VH1’s Sunday Celebreality block, says Bill Carroll, director of programming at Katz Television Group.
   “In that context, with Janice Dickerson preceding [on ‘Surreal Life’] and Gary Busey following [on ‘Celebrity Fit Club], the Hulkster seems less outrageous.”
   Indeed, Hogan comes across as your everyday over-protective dad. In episode one, he grills daughter Brooke’s suitor as they prepare for a first date. In episode two, Hogan gets choked up when son Nick blows him off for a new girlfriend.
  Anyone who has read his colorful comments on celebrity catfights in Us Weekly would have expected more.
   And that includes the critics, who have not been kind. “The challenge with a straightforward series premise of day-to-day family life is finding people who come off as either a little crazy (Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and their children) or at least a little clever,” writes The New York Times’ Anita Gates. “The Hogans are neither, at least not on camera.”

   Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended July 24:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TBS, TNT, USA, Discovery, Spike

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): TNT, USA, Nick at Nite, Fox News, TBS

Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “The Waterboy” (Sunday 8 p.m.) 2.53 million

Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT’s Nextel Cup Racing/Pocono (Sunday 1:29 p.m.) 7.15 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: TNT’s Nextel Cup Racing/Pocono (Sunday 1:29 p.m.); Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.); TBS’s “The Waterboy” (Sunday 8 p.m.); Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 9 p.m.)

Show on the rise: “Made,” MTV, Wednesday 10 p.m. Last week, it averaged 872,000 viewers 18-34, up 22 percent from the previous week’s 713,000. Recent episodes have featured a punk chick turned prom queen and a nerd turned ladies’ man.

Show on the decline: “Into the West,” TNT, Friday 8 p.m. The six-part miniseries was a success, but it lost audience drastically from start to finish. Last week’s finale averaged 3.57 million total viewers, compared with 6.47 million for its June premiere.